CAPE YORK TRIP - Winter 2011

Glend · **Posted:** Mon Sep 19, 2011 5:20 am

Thanks guys! I hope I remember to take a phot or two to share. One of the SJC guys (Hunty) is a professional cameraman so he's making the trip a bit of a documentary, hope to have Utube links as well.

Signing off for now.

Cheers

Glend · **Posted:** Tue Sep 20, 2011 6:39 am

Well I am on the road headed for the Cape. Came up through the Hunter Valley, Narrabri, Moree, Mungindi, to St George (where I have stopped for the night). Mobs of roos trying to commit suicide on the Canarvan Highway between Mungindi and St George. The KJ is running sweet, and it's very responsive without that camper hanging out the back, only one small issue - my new Ruff Stuff Diff armour is weeping a little in two places around the flange weld line - I've run some RTV over it and I will keep an eye on it. Ruff Stuff jumped right on this quality problem and refunded my money and sent me a new cover (no cost to me), I just didn't have time to change it before I left.

Should make Dysart fairly easily tomorrow.

cmohr · **Posted:** Wed Sep 21, 2011 12:18 am

Monitor the wear on your STT's when you hit the dirt stuff Glen. Would be interesting to see how they go.

Are you changing the diff hat in Dysart???

Glend · **Posted:** Wed Sep 21, 2011 3:41 am

In Dysart now, in fact had plenty of light left to wash the bugs off the KJ. I ran into dirt and gravel already cmohr, the 60km short-cut from Capella to Dysart is dirt and gravel. I air'ed down to protect those new tyres. The locals must of thought I was having trouble - one guy in a 76 Series stopped to see if I needed any help and as we were talking he was almost collected by a young guy in a lowered Commodore SS Ute practicing drifting around corners - on a gravel road with floodways and corrugations (ah the stupidity of youth). No wear on the ends of the lugs yet. I will report back to you. Off to Townsville in the AM.

Glend · **Posted:** Thu Sep 22, 2011 4:12 am

Stopped in Ingham. I know where alot of that flood relief money has gone, they have hired thousands of traffic management lollipop spinners and stuck them out on the Bruce Highway in various places. Glad I came up the Gregory Dev Road to Charter Towers that way I only had to deal with them from Townsville north. Some of the others from SJC are telling me they are thick on the road further south - ah.. tax payers money well spent. Gosh Townsville has grown heaps since I was last through there in 2008, there are what looks to be camp style housing stretching out to the north - all identical it seems. Cairns tomorrow.

Glend · **Posted:** Mon Sep 26, 2011 2:57 am

In Cooktown now. Did the Bloomfield yesterday. Stayed at Lion's Den last night. Went up to Wujual Wujual falls. Heading off for Elim Beach tomorrow morning, then up to Kalpower for the night.

Team J.a.G · **Posted:** Wed Sep 28, 2011 12:05 am

Posts some pic's Glen so we can all envy you :mrgreen:

Smerf · **Posted:** Thu Sep 29, 2011 5:34 am

Hey Glend, when does the stupidity of youth end and the stupidity of old age start.
I hope you are having a great time.
Cheers Greg

Glend · **Posted:** Sat Oct 01, 2011 6:32 am

First my apologies to the people that have sent me private messages and questions in the last ten days, I am up on Cape York and am out of network coverage most of the time. THe only reason I have managed to get on now is that I am camping in Seisia (near the Tip) and there is limited Next G coverage here.

There have been two KJ CRDs on the Sydney Jeep Club trip to Cape York and I am pleased to advise that they have done pretty much everything that any other Jeep could do, and usually with much less fuss, high revs, etc, we simply motor on through on our torque. True there were a couple of times where the more sensible track option was taken for an IFS vehicle when extreme articulation was required, but no bypasses were used. We did the OTL right from Palm Creek up, including Gunshot, etc. I had my front sway bar disconnected the entire time, and broke the sway bar retention cable on the extreme corrugations. It's been a fantastic trip, but the corrugations have been horrible. The other KJ CRD has had problems with his rear control arm bolts (the front ones) being vibrated loose on the corrugations, and the have to be tightened up every day.

I have no damage at this stage, other than a very small dent in a door when I dropped a awning pole on it. No water got into the cabin, and the seals worked pretty well, but the constant corrugations take their toll and dust eventually works its way inside. It's been really hot, with days in the 30s and nights in the high 20s. The creeks and river crossings are generally lower than earlier in the year, but there is still plenty of water and mud in there.

Cmohr re your question about the Cooper STTs - they have been great, no tread block problems, and only some very minor chipping or erosion of the tread shoulder block edges in a few places. No flat or damages tyres, and they seem to be wearing well. Pressures I used were 33/36 (F/R) on the highway section to the Cape and 25/26 (F/R) off road. The airbags were inflated to 18psi on the highway, and lowered to 12psi offroad (mainly because I wanted to hold the rear diff up as high as possible and didn't really need extreme rear articulation
(thanks to traction control).

There was alot of low range work in and out of the crossings, and the track sections between the crossings are badly rutted in long sections. All in all what you would expect at the end of a season where many people have been over the OTL.

I'll try to get some photos up on here after I get back to Sydney, just not enough bandwidth available up here to do much. Stay tuned.

There was a big salty (saltwater croc) cruising off the beach here at Seisia just at dusk. We're all sitting on the beach having a cleansing ale - wish you were here.

Cheers
Glend
Edit/Delete Message

Team J.a.G · **Posted:** Sat Oct 01, 2011 7:51 pm

Glen we are very envious of your adventure :mrgreen:

.... looking forward to the next instalment :BANANA:

....stay safe :JEEPIN:

2JeepFamily · **Posted:** Sat Oct 01, 2011 9:02 pm

It sounds excellent Glen, looking forward to some photo's on here when you get back, hope you have taken plenty.
I have a couple of spare disconnect lanyards if you need one. They are a JKS product, part no. JKS-11 if that helps too.
Hope the return trip is just as exciting mate.

Glend · **Posted:** Sun Oct 02, 2011 7:11 am

Made it to the TIP this morning, and the track into it is a great little canopy drive. We did the short-cut track from Seisia up to the Croc Hut, then up to the Tip. It was low tide so we were able to drive on the beach back down the western side towards Punsand Bay. There must have been 600-700 metres of white sand from shore to the water line and this went on for kilometres. Tried to make the head land bypass to Punsand but couldn't find the track. Came back to the main track and used the Punsand short-cut which turned out to be a serious track with bits and pieces of the OTL, water crossing, and really soft sand on top. Just washing the sand and salt off now.

We did a photo memory dump tonight to load everyone's camera cards onto a portable hard drive which will be used to put together an SJC story and photo dbase. The cards are not erased of course so I will get them up here as soon as I can.

Tomorrow the rest of the SJC people are taking a cruise out to Horn and Thursday Island, while I will be starting my trip back to my son's place at Dysart. It will probably take me three days to get back to Cairns with the state of the Development Road. More soon.

cmohr · **Posted:** Sun Oct 02, 2011 7:05 pm

Congrats Glen, Good stuff, will be looking forwards to th epics and story.

Glend · **Posted:** Tue Oct 04, 2011 7:27 am

I've made it back down to Ingham tonight. Yesterday, from Seisia to Musgrave Roadhouse (using the OTL Bypass sections and the Dev Road), was a real ordeal - hundreds of kilometres of a sea of corrugations, ruts, road trains, and pentrating dust, alot of which you miss when you go up the OTL. I probably tried to get too far in the one day. The KJ came through just fine, but the level of concentration required to keep it on the road and making progress has buggered me. I'll be stopping off at my son's place for a few days of R&R.

Tried to upload a couple of photos to Photobucket but they can't seem to get through the limited upload speed of Next G. I'll try again when I get to my son's connection.

Glend · **Posted:** Wed Oct 05, 2011 4:57 am

Here is a photo of the KJ sitting on the beach at the TIP:

If you walk around the point to the right - where those people are, you will come to the sign that marks the Tip.

2JeepFamily · **Posted:** Wed Oct 05, 2011 10:48 pm

Looks great Glen, can't wait to see more.

Glend · **Posted:** Mon Oct 10, 2011 6:36 pm

I got back to Sydney last night....bummer. It started raining as I crossed the border at Mungindi, welcome home eh?
and I had to put on long pants it was so cold!

Already thinking about the next trip.

I will get some more photos up shortly.

gi frog · **Posted:** Wed Oct 12, 2011 12:18 pm

Hi all,
Welcome home Glen, all good no problems?
james

Glend · **Posted:** Wed Oct 12, 2011 6:44 pm

Here are some more photos, and there is a fairly lengthy (30mins+) video being put together for Utube by one of the SJC guys (Hunty) which should feature all of the Jeeps on the trip.

Steve (XJ) and I drove down the west side of the Tip beach to the next headland looking for the track back to Pusand Bay.

This is Dave (KJ, trip leader and LOST lurker) and Hunno (CJ8) getting ready in Cairns (Sunlander Caravan Park). Hunno bought that CJ8 from a guy in the Sunshine Coast Jeep Club - he flew up to pick it up and drove it straight up to Cairns. Hunno's ZJ was not ready (needed new diffs) in time for the trip and he was determined to go and do it in a Jeep. The CJ8 had most of the problems on the trip, broken motor mounts and transfer case mounts, carbie float bowl problems on the steep bits, etc etc:

This is Dave, Hunno and Steve at breakfast at the Lion's Den after the Bloomfield Track.

All the Jeeps lined up at Kalpower camping ground on the way to Musgrave Roadhouse. We stopped here overnight coming up from Elim Beach and Cooktown. There were three other vehicles (non Jeeps) on the Trip: a Discovery 4 towing an Ultimate camper, a Pajero (the wife's car of a Jeep Club member that couldn't bring his Jeep - too uncomfortable apparently), and a ringin Navara with two couples from SEQLD who we met up with at the Lion's Den (they had booked for an ARB tagalong and it was cancelled after they got up to Cairns).

Convoy stop on the track to Musgrave Roadhouse from Kalpower (CJ8 mounts needed more work), and don't be fooled by that road the dust and corrugations were terrible:

On the OTL, Jeep carwash in the Dulhunty River crossing. Hunty (foreground) had absolutely everything in that JK, in addition to the shower he's using to wash the JK he had a 5000W inverter to run his coffee machine and microwave! Of course they were all dirty again five minutes down the track. BTW, both KJs suffered from dust and sand getting into the rear service brake hub area - nothing to really worry about but it made a grinding noise at low speed and we flushed them out occasionally in the creeks and rivers.

Hunno's CJ8 stuck fast at the bottom of the drop at Gunshot - he did eventually manage to drive it out of there unassisted:

Steve's XJ taking the drop at Gunshot (with family on board). His great approach angle and 35" tyres allowed him to drive it out at the bottom. PS there was a Brown Snake lying on the tree overhanging the creek. I should also add that it was about 35C every day up there and we welcomed any chance to get into the water.

More to come.

Glend · **Posted:** Sun Oct 16, 2011 7:15 pm

Here is another shot - my KJ coming down the Palm Creek entrance (taken by SteveF, and pinched off his SJC post):

CAPE YORK TRIP - Winter 2011

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